President Obama applauds after he presents the Medal of Honor to retired U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. William “Kyle” Carpenter during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington on June 19, 2014. (REUTERS/Larry Downing)

Reuters

President Barack Obama on Thursday awarded the Medal of Honor to William “Kyle” Carpenter, a retired Marine corporal who was severely injured in Afghanistan when he shielded a fellow Marine from a Taliban grenade.

“If any American seeks a model of the strength and resilience that define us as a people, including this newest 9/11 generation, I want you to consider Kyle,” Mr. Obama said at the White House ceremony to award the medal.

Cpl. Carpenter, 24 years old, became the eighth living recipient of the nation’s highest military honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He was serving as an Automatic Rifleman in the 1st Marine Division in Helmand Province when his squad was attacked on Nov. 21, 2010. Taliban forces threw three grenades over a compound wall, according to the Marine Corps. The first grenade injured an Afghan National Army soldier and the second was a dud. The third landed near Cpl. Carpenter and Lance Corporal Nicholas Eufrazio, who were stationed on a rooftop observation post.

Cpl. Carpenter lunged toward the grenade, shielding Lance Cpl. Eufrazio and absorbing most of the explosion.

The resulting wounds were severe, including a skull fracture, multiple facial fractures, the loss of one-third of his lower jaw, a collapsed right lung and multiple fragment injuries, the Marines said.

“The man you see before you today, Cpl. William “Kyle” Carpenter, should not be alive,” Mr. Obama said.

“But we are here because this man, this United States Marine, faced down that terrible explosive power, that unforgiving force, with his own body, willingly and deliberately, to protect a fellow Marine,” the president said.

Cpl. Carpenter was medically retired last year from the Marines due to his wounds, and is now a full-time student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

Following the ceremony, he told reporters he was “honored and humbled” by the medal, and recalled generations of Marines–dating back to the Revolutionary War–who fought, were injured and died serving their country.

“I think about the Marines who were with me in Marjah. If I close my eyes today I can still hear their desperate medevacs being called over the radio as they bled out in the fields of Afghanistan,” he said.

Cpl. Carpenter, wearing his dress uniform, also thanked his family and the medical staff that helped “keep me alive and put me back together.”

The Medal of Honor is awarded to members of the armed forces who distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry above and beyond the call of duty.

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